Bucking bull Bushwacker at the top of his field

4-legged bucking rodeo champs stay on the superstar list when the world's boldest cowboys can't stay on their backs

Updated 9:14 am, Monday, October 14, 2013

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, with his bucking bull "Mr. Bull" the number one bull in California, at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley. less

Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, with his bucking bull "Mr. Bull" the number one bull in California, at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Top bulls have their own customized trailers, appear on talk shows and magazine covers, and have Facebook pages.

Top bulls have their own customized trailers, appear on talk shows and magazine covers, and have Facebook pages.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Water Canal is one of Moreno's bulls. Neither raising nor riding the powerful creatures is a job for amateurs.

Water Canal is one of Moreno's bulls. Neither raising nor riding the powerful creatures is a job for amateurs.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Julio Moreno, famed for his champion rodeo bulls, wears personalized spurs at his ranch in Oakdale.

Julio Moreno, famed for his champion rodeo bulls, wears personalized spurs at his ranch in Oakdale.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Moreno shows off a few of the bulls at his ranch in the Central Valley. His wife often gets the privilege of naming them, with show-biz flair.

Moreno shows off a few of the bulls at his ranch in the Central Valley. His wife often gets the privilege of naming them, with show-biz flair.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, displays the belt buckle he won for the world champion bull "Bushwacker" he raised at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif.

Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, displays the belt buckle he won for the world champion bull "Bushwacker" he raised at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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"Frankie" the dog takes a little time off in front of the bull transport trailer, on Thursday Sept. 26, 2013, at the Moreno ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Julio Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley. less

"Frankie" the dog takes a little time off in front of the bull transport trailer, on Thursday Sept. 26, 2013, at the Moreno ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Julio Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, with bull calfs he has raised at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley.

Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, with bull calfs he has raised at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, with bucking bull "Mr. Feiger" at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley.

Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, with bucking bull "Mr. Feiger" at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley.

Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, in front of one the transport trailers covered with posters of his prize winning bucking bulls he has raised at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley. less

Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, in front of one the transport trailers covered with posters of his prize winning bucking bulls he has raised at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, with bucking bulls at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley.

Julio Moreno, on Thursday Sept. 26,2013, with bucking bulls at his ranch in Oakdale, Calif. Moreno raises possible the best rodeo bucking bulls in the world at his ranch in the Central Valley.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Bucking bull Bushwacker at the top of his field

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Cowboy humor. When you raise some of the fiercest bucking bulls in the world, you need it.

Once, a reporter from New York wanted to know about all the publicity surrounding Julio Moreno's world champion riding bull. "What's next for Bushwacker?" the reporter asked. "The bull gets so much press that the riders get short shrift."

Weighing in at 1,700 pounds, Bushwacker isn't likely to have that happen any time soon. Besides, stardom tends to make Moreno's animals a bit ornery. Occasionally horns and man clash. That's why Moreno isn't walking too well. "I can still ride a horse," he said, brushing off a knee injury as he recently limped across his Oakdale (Stanislaus County) ranch.

Moreno, 60, is a stock contractor for Professional Bull Riders Inc. and the National Rodeo Cowboy Association. A few of his bucking bulls, including Bushwacker, are so famous that they get their own customized trailers, appear on talk shows and have their own Facebook pages. Some have graced sports magazine covers - though not the swimsuit issue.

Their semen is worth thousands of dollars. The bulls themselves are worth hundreds of thousands.

"Every one of them is a class athlete," Moreno said, adding that he has 74 bulls total, but only 52 that compete. The others are retired and have been put out to pasture with the breeding cows.

For Bushwacker, the 2011 PBR world bucking champ - only one PBR cowboy since 2009 has been able to make it on his back to the eight-second bell - Moreno was offered $800,000.

If Bushwacker wins his second PBR world championship at the finals in Las Vegas later this month, he's bound to be worth even more. It will definitely make Moreno, a champion athlete in his own right - he has qualified for the national rodeo finals for team roping 11 times - richer.

The championship comes with a $50,000 pot, a blingy belt buckle and a stock trailer worth $50,000. Not bad for eight seconds of work. But for Moreno it's not about the money. It's about living the cowboy dream.

"I wouldn't take $1 million for Bushwacker," he said, but jokes that he might be willing to sell him for $2 million.

In the meantime, Bushwacker is resting up at a ranch in Texas with his handler for the big event. Moreno is passing the time at his own ranch in the Central Valley - biting his nails.

Cody Lambert, a retired bull and bronc rider, former vice president of PBR, and the organization's livestock director, said that out of the top 100 bucking bulls selected to go to Vegas, Moreno has four.

"His numbers are not very high," Lambert said. "But his percentages are high when it comes to his success ratio. As far as Bushwacker, there is no doubt in my mind he's the best bull I've ever seen."

Lambert, a Texas cowboy hall of famer, knows his bulls. "Bushwacker is like Michael Jordan," he said. "He's exactly what the sport needs."

In August, J.B. Mauney, the second-highest-ranked PBR cowboy in the world, rode the bull and thought he was going to lose some teeth. But he dug in his Ariat heels and made it to the bell, the first rider to break Bushwacker's streak of 42 consecutive buck-offs. The spectacle brought an arena full of people to their feet in Tulsa, Okla., as George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone" blared over the loudspeakers.

"It was a long time in coming," said Mauney, who had tried to conquer Bushwacker eight times previously. "He's had a lot of time of knocking me around. The thing about him is that he's smart and never does the same thing twice. Just when you think he's going to go left, he goes right."

The next day Mauney got a congratulations text from Moreno. "Finally," he said.

Stock contractors try not to play favorites, but Moreno readily admits that he has a soft spot for Mauney - even if he did break Bushwacker's streak, or maybe because he did.

The respect is mutual, Mauney said. "When you get one of Julio's bulls, and you can hang on, you're going to win something," he said.

Susan Alcala, an executive at the Bay Area's Ariat International, the official boot sponsor of PBR, said the sport is only as good as the animals. "A lot of people don't realize that there are two athletes involved - the bull and the rider," she said. "That's why having quality stock is so important to PBR."

Moreno credits his prizewinning bulls to good breeding and good care. He can go on for hours about bloodlines, who sired whom and which cows produced his best buckers. Much of what he learned about raising rodeo stock came from his first wife's family, owners of the Flying U Ranch in Marysville (Yuba County). The legendary Cotton Rosser, general manager of the Flying U Rodeo Co. and a well-known bucking horse and bull stock contractor, was his father-in-law.

Moreno is now married to Kindra Moreno, a registered veterinary technician. She often gets the privilege of naming the bulls. This being show biz, the animals have to have catchy monikers. Just ask Sting or Prince.

Earlier, when Moreno was getting divorced, his lawyer said that if he named one of the bulls after his commanding officer in Vietnam he wouldn't charge a fee. Moreno said, "Hell, yeah."

Animal rights organizations such as PETA say bull riding and other rodeo sports are cruel to the animals. The group says the flank strap, cinched around the bull's stomach to encourage the animal to buck using his hind legs, is particularly painful. Moreno says that isn't true.

"The strap is merely a nuisance to them that they want to get off. But we're not doing anything that would cause these animals pain," Moreno said, adding that typically one of his bulls only works nine times a year for four years total before he lets them graze and breed for the rest of their lives. "I love my bulls. When they die I bury them with headstones."

Moreno said he grew up with animals in Bakersfield, where he was one of seven children. The family shared three horses, but only Moreno grew up to be a professional steer roper. His father, who was born in Mexico, loved riding in parades, Moreno said.

"He'd dress me up like a charro and make me ride in those parades," he said. "I hated it."

Charros are traditional Mexican equestrians who wear tight embellished trousers, often laced with sterling silver conchos, bolero jackets, vests, colorful scarves and sombreros. And he may have hated it, but it was how he became an accomplished rider.

He now has 11 horses on his ranch that are especially trained for roping and pickup. Pickup men are used in rodeos to rescue riders off the backs of bucking horses. Often, the PBR hires Moreno to be a safety rider in the ring due to his roping skills.

Lambert said, "Julio is one of the greatest cowboys and ropers we've ever seen."

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